In this exclusive excerpt from Creativity, Inc., Ed Catmull unveils one of his key management tools--the Pixar Braintrust, which has helped the animation powerhouse score 14 box office hits in a row. Read the excerpt here >
Co-founder, Pixar Animation Studios; President, Pixar and Walt Disney and Animation Studios; and author of CREATIVITY, INC.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (written with Amy Wallace).
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Random House has acquired Pixar founder Ed Catmull's book about his career at the animation studio.
He will offer a rare first-hand look inside the studio that reinvigorated animation with its pioneering special effects and lyrical storytelling.
Creativity: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration will be published on April 8, 2014.
Along with John Lasseter and Steve Jobs, Catmull helped found the company in 1986 out of Jobs' acquisition of Lucasfilm's digital division, where Catmull worked. He's been at Pixar ever since.
When Disney acquired Pixar in 2006, Catmull became the president of Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Creativity will provide an inside account of Pixar's rise "from a small, money-losing hardware company to a movie studio with 1,200 employees and a streak of fourteen No. 1 movies in a row that has garnered 30 Academy Awards and earned more than $7 billion worldwide." Catmull will use the story of Pixar's rise to offer lessons on leadership, management and balancing art and commerce.
"People are inherently creative and able to solve problems," Catmull said in a statement. "Even the best companies, with the best intentions, erect barriers and send messages that inhibit employees and derail creativity, without meaning to -- or even realizing they are doing it. Only by reframing how we think about mistakes and acknowledging how little we see, can we open the door for others to create."
Random House editor Andy Ward added, "Ed has a singular understanding of the unique way Pixar is managed and the ways in which that approach has enabled its continued excellence. All you need to do is look at the movies to know that something different is going on at Pixar."
Ward acquired the book for Random House. Catmull was represented by Christy Fletcher at Fletcher & Company.
Amy Wallace will serve as co-writer.
